Verdandi remembered her master Bing Yeon’s words before entering this duel: no matter how blind your opponent may be, the moment you let your guard down, victory and defeat will be decided.
– Zikhart can turn anything in this world into a weapon.
At first, she couldn’t believe it. There was magic that utilized mana to create weapons from nothing, but…
– Is that… really possible?
– Yes, it may not be possible yet, but… once he reaches perfection, he can even bend time and wield it as a sword.
The idea that concepts like time and space could be wielded as swords seemed impossible, no matter how you looked at it. If it weren’t for Bing Yeon’s words, who saved his mother with the power to see the future, Verdandi would have dismissed it as nonsense.
‘After all, it did say “truth” back then!’
The blue-haired man in front of her really looked harmless. He felt like someone who couldn’t even squash a bug on the side of the road.
– So, you probably have almost no chance of defeating Zikhart.
– What do you mean by that?! A hero never loses!
Her master Bing Yeon predicted Verdandi’s defeat. In the original story, I Must Kill the Hero, it was true that no one could defeat the corrupted version of her.
– That’s because you currently don’t have your holy armor.
This world was different from the story. The real Verdandi didn’t have her holy armor, so she had no way to block Zikhart’s attacks.
Even if she relied on the holy sword to defend, she couldn’t win in a war of attrition against someone who could endlessly replenish their weapons.
How on earth could she obtain holy armor? Her master Bing Yeon seemed to know the answer but was tight-lipped about it.
‘But I’ve practiced a ton with the Six Harmonies Sword Technique, so I must win!’
Having mastered the movements learned through the Imaginary World, Verdandi envisioned the possibility of victory in her mind.
In a world of competition, if you enter thinking you’ll lose, you’ll never win. You have to aim for the highest spot to at least end up somewhere in the middle.
“You are the hero of this generation, I hear. Is that true?”
“That’s right!”
Verdandi brightened in response to Zikhart’s words. Although he appeared villainous at that moment, she didn’t harbor prejudices based on Bing Yeon’s example.
“In your situation, I suppose I’d look like a villain.”
A boy stained with blood to protect his family. Zikhart seemed to test Verdandi based on the information he had heard from Bing Seolhwa. If her words were true, then Verdandi was a crazed hero, intoxicated by justice and indiscriminately slaughtering anyone in her path.
But,
“That’s right! However, I think people can change!”
Unlike Bing Seolhwa’s expectations, Verdandi didn’t reveal any murderous intent towards Zikhart, even knowing he was a villain. In fact, she seemed to eagerly await a fair duel, patiently waiting for his attack.
“Are we really talking about a human who’s already killed someone?”
“Those people might have been truly bad!”
“I’ve never heard that before.”
Zikhart, realizing the absurdity, couldn’t help but chuckle. How many people would dare say such things based on the act of killing someone in this world?
Only someone as pure and innocent as Verdandi, who almost killed her own mother due to a misjudgment, could make such a statement.
“…Well, they were certainly deserving of death. There were lunatics who tried to harm my sister just because I couldn’t see.”
Zikhart spoke, opening his previously closed eyes, his sightless gaze staring into space.
His sister, who had always guided and supported him, even when others pointed fingers, told him it was okay.
“I know it may sound like an excuse, but I had no choice.”
He put on a brave face when kids threw stones at him just because he couldn’t see. He held back tears when boys stole the cane his sister crafted for him and ran off, promising to return it if he caught them.
“…If I hadn’t killed them, they would have tried to humiliate my family in front of me.”
He could not let those ruffians who stormed their home and attempted to violate his family go unpunished. The robbers who had even tried to take him hostage just because of his blindness couldn’t be forgiven.
Zikhart bitterly regretted his own powerlessness at that time. Being weak and unable to see his two eyes led to a life robbed by the strong.
And so, he took up a sword.
One that was unbreakably solid and sharp enough to cut through everything in this world.
“I understand completely! You’re not lying!”
After confirming the truth in Zikhart’s words, Verdandi nodded. Her own mother had suffered a similar experience at the hands of robbers.
Had she been in the same situation, she would have taken up a sword to protect her family.
“Is that so? It’s surprising how trusting a person can be… I can’t tell if you’re foolish or kind.”
Zikhart spoke, testing her. It was strange for someone he just met to show such trust after telling her he had committed murder.
Even in a medieval world where people were dying left and right, murder was still a serious crime.
He had survived barely thanks to Bing Seolhwa’s arrangements.
“I have a similar past, so I understand well!”
Unlike in the original I Must Kill the Hero, Verdandi empathized with Zikhart’s situation. Originally, she would have chosen suicide due to having no one to understand her.
“I think I understand why that Bing Seolhwa gave the order for you to kill us.”
Seeing Verdandi, Zikhart smiled bitterly as he grasped at the air and opened his mouth. The menacing aura swirling around made her body tremble.
“It seems he thought that if that blade was turned toward him, it would be a threat.”
Zikhart manipulated the clouds in the sky to shape a sword. A weapon with a white handle and blade appeared before Verdandi.
“But, my family is being held hostage.”
He spoke in a calm tone, but his muscles bulged with tension. He needed to kill the hero Verdandi to save his sister and parents.
Even if he clung to Bing Yeon now and betrayed Bing Seolhwa, the chances of winning were slim.
Although he had lost the light in his eyes, Zikhart’s mind, capable of understanding everything else, screamed that he couldn’t possibly defeat her.
“You’d better come at me, prepared to kill, or you won’t survive.”
Life and death decision.
Zikhart had reached the point where he believed if he couldn’t kill Verdandi here, he should rather die.
*
– The first thing to do is to evade, not block.
Recalling the advice Bing Yeon had given her, she decided not to block Zikhart’s descending sword strike but instead evaded it.
– Why should that be?
– Because the opponent will definitely form a sword from the clouds. There might be exceptions, but the likelihood that you’ll have your holy armor is very high.
He was trying to kill her before she could summon her holy armor.
This was also a theme present in the original story. Zikhart was known for attacking by capturing the clouds in the sky.
When he shaped a sword out of the clouds, that would allow him to directly pierce through the opponent’s defenses, but…
– If you evade instead of blocking, the opponent will have no choice but to resort to another move. Verdandi.
If she dodged that, it would be difficult to inflict any significant damage.
‘My master was right…!’
As she rolled to avoid the whip-like clouds extending toward her, Verdandi tried to grasp Zikhart’s movements.
She felt no sense of being hit, which made Zikhart realize something odd and wonder what kind of sword he should create next.
“…Did I miss? I felt no impact.”
– If you feel the cloud sword has been nullified, the opponent will throw air like a dagger or… try to capture light to create a sword that would strike you with impossible speed.
The next attack was about to take shape before her, just as Bing Yeon had predicted, in the form of sunlight being captured and hurled.
Then, it happened.
“……”
She quickly took off her shoes to muffle her footsteps and held her breath to stifle any sound. She even tossed a stone far away to drown out the beating of her heart.
– This trick has a flaw; it’s deceiving the position before letting go of the hand.
Even if one had developed extraordinary senses and possessed natural talent in swordsmanship, they still faced the physical limitations they could not overcome.
But,
“Is that where you are?”
“……?!”
Ding—! A metallic sound rang as Zikhart unpredictably hurled his sword in her direction. Had she not anticipated it and raised her own blade to block the strike, she would have been dead in an instant.
“How did you know?! I definitely hid my sounds!”
Left with no choice, Verdandi charged at Zikhart, using the Six Harmonies Sword Technique. Ideally, she should have followed Bing Yeon’s advice and waited for an opening from a distance, but instead…
“…The pitch and intensity of the sound are different.”
Zikhart’s technique seen in the original story had been roughly solved by Bing Seolhwa. He sensed impending victory against her and even felt relaxed enough to explain how he detected her position.
“With skills like this, you could never defeat someone like Bing Seolhwa.”
Zikhart penetrated Verdandi’s abdomen with his blade as he spoke.
